Poland’s FM defends minister’s Jewish massacre remarks

Poland’s foreign minister on Friday defended the country’s education minister, saying her remarks, which appeared to deny Polish responsibility for two massacres of Jews in the 1940s, have been misunderstood.

The comments by Foreign Minister Witold Wszczykowski showed that the on-and-off soul searching in Poland regarding the Holocaust is far from over.

Education Minister Anna Zalewska last week spoke about the Second World War Jedwabne massacre of 1941, when Poles burned alive some 300 Jews in a barn, and the post-war Kielce massacre of 1946, in which 42 people died, 37 of them Jews. Anniversaries of both pogroms were marked with observances earlier this month, with President Andrzej Duda condemning anti-Semitism at the Kielce observances.

Jewish organizations protested – and some called for the minister’s dismissal – after a Zalewska TV interview in which she avoided confirming the responsibility of the Poles for the massacres. In fact, shortly after the war, Polish courts convicted and punished Poles for their involvement.

Waszczykowski, on a visit to Washington, said “I will keep patiently explaining (to the critics) that they have misunderstood minister Zalewska’s words.”